Reunion: Chapter 8

  “The president will see you now,” his aide informed Kathryn before showing her through the heavy leather clad door.  She was immediately struck with how opulent the décor of the room was.  Her own president’s official office was certainly fancy by Haven standards, so she supposed the difference was symbolic of nothing more than how much more prosperous Kobol was than Haven in general.

  She brightened noticeably when she saw Jaren sitting on the red leather couch perpendicular to the large presidential desk it was in front of.  It appeared quite old and was made of a dark wood, and she liked it immediately for reasons she couldn’t articulate.

  “Hello Kathryn, good to see you again,” Jaren offered with a smile.

  “Likewise Jaren, I quite enjoyed the reception party last night.”

  “Glad to hear it,” President Mortensen acknowledged as he closed the leather folder on his desk which he’d been looking at when she’d walked in.  “Few occasions around here are as big a cause for celebration as officially welcoming a delegation from another colony for the first time.”  He came around from behind his desk and sat on one of the two red leather chairs facing the matching couch and invited her to sit on it beside Jaren.  “You are after all only the second other colony planet with whom we’ve made contact.”

  “Were you able to communicate with your people this morning?” Jaren asked her.  She’d been ordered to check in daily with Haven and had conducted her first check in this morning.  It had gotten boring quite immediately waiting for messages to be transmitted back and forth.  Even through the rift, it took more than seventeen minutes for a message to travel from planet to planet, which could be even further delayed since the rift had to be opened for each passage of a message.  It couldn’t be left open indefinitely for such a conversation on account of not only the system burning out, but also due to the dangers associated with depriving a planet like Kobol of that much sun light on a longer timeline.   As a result, occasionally the timing would be off and a message wouldn’t make it through, resulting in an even longer delay.

  Fortunately, not much back and forth was required for her purposes today.  She reported a description of Kobol City, her impressions of the dignitaries and diplomats she’d met, both the Koboli as well as the Roman ambassadors.  Along with her expected report, she included details of the conversation she’d had with Ambassador Teresa and requested direction on how to proceed on the suggestion presented to her.  She chose to leave out Irvina’s opinion of the president on an official channel.  That information felt like something she could wait to be relay in person.

  It took nearly an hour for her original transmission to receive a response, suggesting that some time had been taken on her home planet to discuss how to proceed before they replied.  It was after all a monumental decision to consider in a very small amount of time.   There must have been some impulse to maintain the New Horizon exactly as it was as some sort of museum ship, perhaps even something more like a temple.  However, when considering how the original builders of the ship would feel, Kathryn figured that they built the ship to be used, to facilitate travel and adventure.  In this light it seemed like such a waste to just mothball it, to render it inert and forbid it any further adventure.  It was a tool which begged to be used, not put away.

  “Yes, we were able to communicate quite effectively through the rift.  I greatly appreciate your permission to use your equipment to do so.”

  “Our pleasure.   So what’s your next move?  We’d be happy to facilitate setting up a formal embassy for Haven here on Kobol, and as soon as possible we’d like to formally request the opportunity to set up a similar facility for ourselves on Haven.”

  “Thank you.   I will forward those sentiments in my transmission tomorrow.”

  “How is your team enjoying their time here?” Mortensen asked.

  “Oh, like children in a candy store!” she exclaimed with genuine excitement.   “They’re still spending time with the crew Jaren brought to Haven.  We all got to know each other fairly well along the way,” she smiled at Jaren, “and they’re still trying to learn everything they can about your world, your history, your art, science, technology… they couldn’t be more excited.”

  “Glad to hear it.  Irvina, Xion, and Nadelle seem to be quite fond of your people as well.”  Especially Nadelle, she thought with a private internal smirk.

  “So… how long will it take for you to copy the archive?” Kathryn leadingly asked.

  “Over a year,” Jaren sighed with obvious lament.  “It takes a long time to read that much data on the New Horizon’s decoder and transmit it down to the surface one page at a time”

  “Well,” Kathryn started as she shifted to sit on the edge of the couch and draw them in, “I have been authorized to make you an offer which should speed up the process for you quite considerably,” Kathryn suggested.

  “We are… eager to hear your suggestion,” the president offered with uncertainty as he quickly looked over at.  “Go ahead.”

  “Well, I understand that an investigative expedition to Earth is low on your people’s list of priorities for whatever reason,” Kathryn cautiously started, “but for my people it has always been a top priority which was second only to reaching the New Horizon itself.”

  “I thought you’d get along with the Romans,” Jaren said with a knowing smile.

  “What are you proposing?” President Mortensen asked, much more seriously.

  “Well, you’re right Jaren.  In speaking with Ambassador Teresa, we concluded that if the New Horizon were properly supplied and retrofitted, it is already an appropriate enough ship for an expeditionary mission like that.”

  Mortensen shot a concerned look at Jaren, who seemed to be only intrigued with a single raised eyebrow.

  “Don’t worry,” Kathryn tried to reassure them, “we have every intention of honouring the deal we’ve already made with you.”  The president seemed to relax a little, but Jaren remained merely intrigued as to what she wanted to propose.  “However, I have been authorized by my people’s government to negotiate an arrangement further to our additional one, which we believe would serve us both quite well beyond it.”

  “Well I’m certainly happy to hear what you have to offer,” Mortensen said with a smile which Kathryn could now more easily recognize as fake after speaking with Irvina about him.

  “So,” Kathryn started, “we agreed that in exchange for you helping us get the New Horizon up and running again and granting us access to your Escher rift system, we would allow you to copy the contents of the archives.”

  President Mortensen nodded and rolled his wrist for her to continue.

  “As you know though, part of that original arrangement was that we retain possession and control of the archive.  That’s why you’re having to go through the painstaking process of reading it sheet by sheet on the ship and then transmitting down to the surface.”

  “That’s right,” Mortensen acknowledged, clearly eager for her to get to the point.

  “But like you said, it’ll take you a long time to do it this way, almost a year.”  She paused ever so briefly for dramatic effect.   “I’ve been authorized to offer you the opportunity to physically remove the archive from the New Horizon so that you can bring it to the surface and copy it much more quickly.  I understand that would only take you weeks instead, if not only days.”

  The president looked at Jaren with cautious inquisitiveness.  “It’s far too precious to risk atmospheric entry with it,” Jaren considered thoughtfully, “but we could certainly launch appropriate equipment into orbit on one of our ships.  We could transfer it there and yes, read it much more quickly.  If you were to let us do this, we could have the entire contents transferred in… yes, probably only a couple of weeks!”  Jaren seemed quite excited at the prospect.

  “But what would you want in return?” President Mortensen seemed far more concerned about her ask than with what she was offering in return.  The archive and its contents clearly didn’t mean much to him beyond how securing it could benefit him politically.

  “First we would need every assurance, to the point of a threat of force should you decline, that the archive would be returned to us in its original condition when you are done with it.”

  “Of course.”   The president was experienced enough a political actor to understand that the mention of force was necessary only to underline how non-negotiable this point was, and Kathryn was relieved he didn’t seem to think anything of it.

  “Beyond that, we would ask for a complete copy of its contents when you’re done.”

  “As we originally agreed to, yes of course.” The president kept his chin resting on his hand, seemingly waiting with a touch of boredom for her to get to the real ask.

  “In exchange for this concession on our part, we would ask for an upgrade and resupply of the New Horizon.”

  “Upgrade?” Jaren asked with another raise of his eyebrow.  It was the first time she’d seen him seem genuinely surprised.

  “What kind of re-fit?” the president asked dubiously.  His face took on a shade of darkness with what Kathryn could only surmise as suspicion.

  “The kind which would allow us to mount our own investigative expedition to Earth,” she explained

  The president leaned back in the chair, laced his fingers behind his head, and looked up towards the ceiling.  She could tell it seemed like a big ask to him.

  Kathryn began speaking a little too quickly to explain before he could decide against it.   “Jaren helped us re-start the fusion core, so we’ve got plenty of power, and the atmospheric cycler you’ve already provided us with take care of the ship’s environmental needs.  But its propulsion system is still limited to its original ion engines designed for 20 year linear interstellar.  If you could replace them with some of your fancy anti-matter engines as well as an adequate supply of fuel, we could cut our transit time between planets down from months to days.”

  Mortensen looked over at Jaren.  “Well first of all is that even possible?”  Kathryn was relieved his first of all wasn’t a refusal.

  Jaren pursed his lips as he considered what would be involved.  “Probably… I mean yes, sure.  But it would take some doing.”

  “We… would also require a couple shuttles with orbital ascent and descent capability.”  She tried to contain her wince as she asked for even more than what they already seemed to be having trouble metabolizing.

  Mortensen eyes narrowed slightly in response as he scrutinized her and her requests.   She had the sense that he was in the middle of deciding that he didn’t like her.  “Is that all?” he asked with a sarcasm which seemed poorly masked by design.   “It’s a big ask, Commander Barnes.   We do well for ourselves, but…” he shook his head softly in thought, “our resources are far from infinite.”

  “I appreciate that, but… well, can I be honest with you?” she asked leadingly.

  “I had hoped you have already been,” Mortensen countered flatly without expression.

  “Er,” Kathryn’s face scrunched, and she lowered her head slightly at the realization of her unforced error.  “If you’ll allow me to rephrase;” she momentarily paused to carefully consider her words.  “What I mean, is that what I’m about to say I haven’t been officially authorized to say, and is only of my own mind.”

  The president put his fingers out in understanding invitation and returned them to supporting his chin. 

  “The Romans are as motivated as we are to investigate Earth.  They have offered whatever resources they have which could help us, and we could technically pull this off ourselves.  They have adequate shuttles and the New Horizon’s original engines could eventually get us all the way to Roma and then all the way to Earth.  Like I said earlier though, it would take years.”

  “And you’d have to wait until we harvested the archive to even start, unless you intend to…” the President asked leadingly.

  Kathryn put her hand up to stop him.  “Absolutely not.  Let there be no ambiguity as to our intention to honour our existing deal.  I wish only to make clear that at least as I understand things, we will do whatever we have to in order to get to Earth as quickly as possible.  Despite those two potentially conflicting imperatives, I remain convinced that my government would neither want to wait, nor risk crossing Kobol.  I imagine that if left with no other choice they would let you take the archive off of the New Horizon either way in order to get to Earth faster.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” Mortensen asked bluntly.  “It’s certainly not a very effective negotiation strategy.”  His puzzlement at her admission to this seemed genuine.

  “Because I want to impress on you just how important Earth is to Haven and Roma.   We’ll do it on our own if we have to, even if it means giving up our only bargaining chip to do so, it’s that important to us.  

  “I don’t…” she sighed, “I still don’t fully understand your people’s lack of interest, but that your prerogative and that’s fine.  But I sense that your people have a real desire to be friends with us, as we do with you.  Admitting this gives you an opportunity to show us you can be trusted, that your intentions are pure.  If you take what I have said and use it to your advantage, to exploit our interests against us, then at least then we’d know what kind of people we’re dealing with.   I have made us vulnerable; it presents you with an opportunity to demonstrate your true intent.  You can choose to prove your honourable intent, to create a foundation on which to build a strong and lasting friendly alliance, or you can demonstrate that our relationship will ultimately be adversarial and exploitative.  I’d prefer to know either way as early as possible.”

  It was hard for Kathryn to get a read on how Mortensen was reacting to her candidness.   She sat forward on the couch to physically lean into emphasizing her point.  “Granting us this would make us a space-faring people as long as we have the New Horizon.  This could be useful to you as well.  When we’re done with Earth, we would be an additional ship you could call on for assistance, whether for joint expeditions or to respond if one of your own ships is in distress.  Upgrading New Horizon in friendship would make it a resource for you as well.  And unlike the Roma, we crave development.   With what we are learning from you, with what we have already learned, it is only a matter of time before we have our own fleet of rift faring ships.  We could become powerful allies; we could do amazing things together!”   Kathryn was so genuinely excited by this prospect for the future she was trying as hard as she could to infect Mortensen with it.

  “Or we could be creating an enemy which could ultimately destroy us.”

  Kathryn’s heart sank.

  “I’ve read the reports.  You already have missiles with nuclear bombs on them.  Why?  To aim at what enemy?  We have known how to build those for centuries, but we never bothered to, there was no utility in them, only the horror of them ever being used.”  The president shifted uncomfortably; something was clearly agitating them.  “Not everyone here is as delighted as we are,” he gestured towards himself and Jaren.   “There are many hard liners and believers in the old ways who see you as nothing short of an existential threat, not only through cultural contagion, but from outright military aggression as well.”

  “How can you say that?” Kathryn asked.  “We’ve done nothing but offer our friendship since meeting you!”  She was too agitated; she made a conscious effort to calm herself down or at least mute her outward expression of them as much as possible.

  The president seemed to scrutinize her for too long before answering, but finally did.   He formed a smile which made her uncomfortable for reasons she couldn’t articulate, like a cat who had finally decided if he was going to let the mouse live or not.  “You are truly the heirs of Earth, aren’t you?”  It didn’t sound like a question.  “Kobol, Roma, we came here to escape people like you, do you understand that?”

  His tone was clear and firm, but he seemed to be specifically trying to strip it of malice.   Kathryn declined to confirm or deny and instead just wait for him to continue.  She glanced at Jaren and noticed she’d never seen him appear uncomfortable in quite this way before.

  President Mortensen paused to collect his thoughts then continued: “I am not your enemy Commander Barnes.  I like you; I have a good sense from you and your people and I want to help you.  But I do consider valid some of the sensitivities of some of my constituents which I am sensitive to even if I don’t share them.   The more you reveal yourselves to be the true heirs of what we came here to escape, the more resistance you’ll find here.  The idea us helping you rise to a position to challenge and threaten us is a sensitive proposition at best.”

  Kathryn went out on a limb.  “What were you escaping from?”

  Mortensen leaned back with a heavy sigh.  “Depends who you ask I suppose.  A great many came on our colony ship, with a wide variety of motivations.  But the ones you have to worry about are the ones who were worried about some kind of purge.  The world had become militantly secular; many worried about being put in re-education camps, of having their children taken away, of their beliefs becoming illegal to believe.  To them, you are the second coming of that threat, and the stronger we allow you to become, the brighter we rekindle that threat.”

  “Not all of us feel that way,” Jaren said softly without looking at anyone.   Mortensen looked over at him with an expression which could only be described as boredom.

  “I admit…” Kathryn started slowly, “this is a factor I had not anticipated.”  The room was quiet for a few moments.  “But I think I can appreciate the concern.” Mortensen looked at her with a touch of surprise at her concession.  Kathryn didn’t think he’d expected that.

  “This is an issue which goes beyond this room though.  It sounds like the divisions you speak of exist here with or without our presence, that we exacerbate this as opposed to create it.”  

  Mortensen nodded his approval of her point.

  “The thing is, the Earth you left was a monolith against you.  We, even if we come up to your technological level tomorrow, will at best be an equal.  We will have our ways, you will have yours, we will have our own internal political challenges same as you will.  Many people on Haven are equally concerned about this all being a precursor to forced conversion to your faith.”

  Mortensen raised an eyebrow at that, and Kathryn admitted to herself that she was exaggerating, but she felt it adequately served her point.  “Allies don’t need to agree on everything Mr. President, only their mutual interests and red lines.”

  He nodded.   “I’m with you Commander.”  His sincerity came through more than it previously had.  “I want to make this happen; I want to make this work.  I just need you to understand the ways in which I am exposing myself politically to help you.  Your people will need to help me keep things in a constructive lane.”

  “I believe I understand your point Mr. President, and I will convey it to my people.”

  “Alright then.   To be clear we don’t have a complete disinterest in the Terran System.  While broadly not interested in what remains of human civilization there today, for reasons I just articulated, a human habitable planet is always a resource in and of itself.  If nothing else, we consider it at least a place where we may someday want to establish a new colony.

  “Family is sacred to us Commander.  Your colony is to us first and foremost long-lost family, a potential new friend who will demonstrate their character by their actions towards and with us.  We would go to lengths which might even surprise you to not be the ones to alienate this new relationship.  We don’t believe children inherit the sins of their parents, and the majority of us will be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt instead of expecting of you what we remember of your founders.

  “Whatever is left on Earth to us is nothing but the crumbled remains of everything we came here to escape.  This attitude leaves us with little curiosity as to what happened to it, but personally I can see how that is only our perspective.  The truth is there was no need for you to negotiate Commander Barnes.  You needed only to make it clear to us how important your request was, and how you would see it as a gesture of good will.  We will breathe new life into your precious ship for you Commander.  We will honour its builders who were wise enough to create the archive which we are so interested in.”

  “I can’t adequately express our gratitude,” Kathryn offered sincerely.

  “But make no mistake here,” Mortensen stated with a note of severity.  “We understand ourselves to be making ourselves vulnerable to you in turn.  We will observe very closely how your respond.”

  “I understand completely, Mr. President.”

  “How long will it take?” The president asked Jaren.

  “Only a few days if we make it a priority.”

  “Grand,” Mortensen said as he stood up and headed back behind his desk.  “Okay Jaren, you oversee the refit and do indeed make it a priority for them.  “Commander Barnes please report to Haven our agreement and our request for a formal exchange of embassies, especially if you and yours will be gone in a few days.   Since the Romans seem as obsessed with Earth as yourselves, you might want to ask them if they’d like to send some people along with you.  That is if you’d welcome them of course, just a thought.”

  “Yes sir, thank you sir, I doubt we’d be able to keep them away.  And I’d like to thank you more personally sir.  A month ago, I thought setting foot on the New Horizon would be the height of my career and the biggest moment of my life.  Now… well now it seems like that was only the beginning, and I have your people to thank for that.”

  “Helping put our family back together is my pleasure Commander,” he answered.

  

 

  “I can’t believe we’re actually going to get to go there, it’s… it’s like a dream,” Felix said as he and Kathryn laid on the ground looking up at the night sky.  It was later that day, and they were in the back yard of the government guest residence facility they’d been staying at a little ways out of town.  The next morning her and her team would be returning to the New Horizon to oversee the re-fits and get a crash course in all of the new technology.

  After her meeting with the president Kathryn had communicated with her home world again and been showered with praise and congratulations for her good work.  She’d been told that when this phase of her career was over, she had a promising ambassadorial career waiting for her if she wanted it.   She wasn’t sure how she felt about that prospect; it was difficult to gauge if it was more or less distasteful than the prospect of a career in politics.  For now, she was just happy to enjoy the role which fate had presently handed her.

  “Yes, like a dream…” she answered distantly, lost in thought.  

  The sky was different.  It was funny; she’d never really studied the Haven sky much.  One took the stars with such permanence.  She had no idea that she knew her own sky so well that that another would feel so alien.  She couldn’t point out any particular differences, couldn’t point what exactly was wrong, but something primordial in her just understood that the sky was wrong, that it was quite different from the one she was used to.  The moon was bright, and this was the most striking thing she noticed.  There was no comparable large moon on Haven, just a few small, captured asteroids on a slow march to inevitable shattering and vaporization in the atmosphere many centuries after her.  She knew that the Earth had a moon and she wondered how much like this it was.  It was nearly full, and she marveled at how bright the night could be with it.  Nights on Haven were only ever pitch-black.

  “He’s pretty dreamy too, isn’t he?” Felix asked.

  “Yeah…” Kathryn answered, immediately thinking about Jaren when he’d said it.  After a couple of beats she snapped to her senses.   “Wait, what?  What are you talking about?”

  Felix laughed at her.  “Come on Kat, you know I know you better than that at this point, better than you know yourself sometimes.  I’ve seen the way you two flirt.”

  “Flirt??” she exclaimed indignantly with an undercurrent of embarrassment.  “I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Nooo, no of course you don’t,” Felix teased.  “I’m jealous… he’s quite a guy, and for whatever reason you’re the only one who seems to have struck anyone’s fancy on this trip,” he sighed.

  “Felix, this isn’t… a fucking cosmic dating cruise,” she expressed in frustration.   “I’m a professional.  Even if, if I had… well, it’d be…”  The right words just wouldn’t come.  “Aw fuck it.” she sighed heavily in defeat, returning her gaze deep into the night sky.   “Is it really that obvious?” she asked.   

  “Only to those who know and care about you,” he answered.  “You’re not with Tobyn anymore, you’re free to do whatever you want.   Frankly, I’m eager to see you move on from that.”

  “I didn’t want to entertain anything while we were still on the mission to get here.  We’re still here on an official mission.  It would be beyond professionally inappropriate to… what, date a Koboli?”

  “Could just fuck him,” Felix grinned, and Kathryn rolled her eyes at him.  “I’m clearly the wrong person to ask,” he said.  “Personally, I don’t even think the mission we’ve been on should have stopped you.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “I know.”

  She couldn’t see him in the dark, but she could feel his grinning.

  “There’s really nothing stopping you, you know.” he stated after a time.  “You don’t serve in the same service.  You both seem up tight enough to not let it impact your work.”

  Kathryn reached out and gently hit him.

  “Professional enough, then.” he corrected himself.  “Unless of course it has nothing to do with your work and that’s just an excuse.”

  “What do you mean?” Kathryn asked.  She really didn’t know what he might be suggesting.

  “You were with Tobyn forever,” Felix explained.  “It would be pretty normal for you to be reluctant to open yourself up to someone else so soon afterwards.”

  “Scared?   Oh… I don’t think it’s that.  It’s been almost a month at this point.”

  “These things can take time Kat… When Vash broke my heart, it took a lot more than a month before I could look at anyone else that way again.”

  “Sure, but that was different,” Kathryn responded.  “That blindsided you, you were still very much in love with him.   Things with Tobyn were… it had become a zombie relationship much earlier.  I think I was already over it by the time it finally ended formally.

  “Fair enough.”

  “Jaren though… I don’t know.  We spent a lot of time together on the trip here from Haven.  I think I really like him.  He’s… just so not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”

  “Well, he is an alien after all,” Felix pointed out and laughed.

  Kathryn’s brow wrinkled.  “Do we really call them aliens?  I mean if they’re from another world but they’re still human, they’re aliens?”

  “Hunh,” Felix thought.  “You know, I really don’t know.  Guess it’s up to us if we consider them aliens or not,” he concluded with as much of a shrug as laying down on the grass allowed.

  The two lay on the grass side by side together for a while.  Kathryn found herself surprised with how much Jaren occupied her thoughts when her mind was idle.  There were so many things which her professional brain considered so important, so exciting, and yet…

  “Yup, pretty dreamy indeed…” Felix teased, breaking the silence.

  Kathryn punched his arm hard, but he just kept laughing.  As his laughter turned to pouting as the impact became fully felt and he rubbed the now tender spot where she’d punched him, Jaren partially obscured the sky as he came to stand beside them.  “There you are,” he said.  “Commander there’s something I’d like to discuss with you about the mission.  Care to walk with me?”

  “Romantic nighttime stroll under the stars you say?” Felix mischievously asked.

  “Felix!!” Kathryn hissed at him with a mixture of fury and embarrassment in her eyes.  The urge to hit him again but this time with the real intent to injure overwhelmed her but she just barely managed to stifle it.  “Not cool.” she said, hoping the daggers in her eyes adequately got the point across that she would not tolerate that kind of interference, and that he was lucky that a witness spared him from the injuries she wished to inflict on him in that moment.

  “I’m… I’m sorry?” Jaren asked, confused.  He seemed to be doubting himself that he’d heard what he thought he’d heard.

  “Forget it,” Kathryn quickly said as she stood up and took his arm to lead him away from Felix.  She hoped the darkness of the night was adequate to obscure her blushing.

  Before she could get away, Felix had stood up and grabbed her arm to stop her and pull her back to him.  He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek affectionately.  Before pulling back he whispered in her ear: “Sorry Kat, just want you to be happy.”  He smiled at Jaren with a hit of mischief before turning to head back into the residence.

  “So um, shall we?” Jaren asked awkwardly.

  “Yes, of course.” Kathryn answered, eager to change the channel.  She held out her hand for him to lead, and then followed beside him.  “What did you want to talk about?” she asked as they got going.

  He sighed heavily but relatively quietly.  Something seemed to be weighing on him.  “While many of my people are so acutely disinterested in Earth, I am not.  And neither are the people I selected to be part of my team.”

  “No?” she asked.

  “No.” he affirmed.  “We’re more the kind of people who would volunteer for missions like first contact with Haven.  We’re into that sort of thing even if the broader public here is not.”

  “What are you saying?”  She really couldn’t tell where he was leading with this but was very interested.

  “We’d like to come with you,” he stated almost apologetically.  “Irvina, Xion, Nadelle and myself, we’re all onboard if you’ll have us.”

  “Really?”   Kathryn’s mind flooded with all of the ways that could assist their mission.  “That’s fantastic, of course we’d be happy to have you along!  We could have a four-person team from each planet; it’s exactly what we need and it would be a big help to have you along with us in case anything goes wrong with any of your technology.”

  Jaren nodded, seemingly pleased with her response.  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “Wait, you’re not wanting to come along just to make sure I’m okay, do you?”

  “What?   No, that’s… no.”  His rebuke had a needless air of offence to it.  “We’re genuinely interested in the aims of your mission.  It has a better chance of safety and success if we come along if that’s what you mean, but we’re not asking to come because we think you can’t do it without us if that’s what you mean.  Although we certainly would all feel terrible if you got into trouble trying to use our technology and didn’t have anyone there to help you with it.”

  “I see…” Kathryn nodded thoughtfully.  “Well, I’m glad to know you and your team have more interest in Earth than the rest of your people.”

  “You’ve had a lot to do with that already Kathryn.  We’ve always been outliers in that respect here.  It’s refreshing to meet people with similar ambitions and priorities.  Your people are an inspiration to my team, an affirming validation.”  

  Kathryn stopped walking and it took a few steps for Jaren to turn notice and turn around.   “It’s already happening then.”

  “What is?” Jaren asked.

  “What your president said.  “Our presence here.  We are already deepening existing divides between your people.  You may be inspired by us, but others will be equally revulsed.   It’s already happening.”

  Jaren walked back and put a more than friendly yet less than intimate hand on her shoulder.   “Any impact you have is only an accelerant of existing tensions.  At worst you will only force us to an internal conflict earlier than we otherwise would have.  It is warranted for my people to present a united front to yours, but we are anything but.   In fact, from what I observed,” he ran his hand slowly from her shoulder down her arm before letting go, “your people are much more aligned amongst themselves than mine.”

  Kathryn nodded and allowed herself to continue to be led along the path.  “We are hardly a monolith,” she observed to him about the people of Haven.

  “No,” Jaren conceded, “but you all seem to share the same ambitions at your core.   Where you disagree, you disagree with means not aims.  Maybe your early conflict sorted things out enough.  Maybe your underlying philosophies are adequately sound.  My people though, still wrestle fundamentally with whether we want to look outward or inward.  Still argue over how doctrine should be interpreted.  It would be impossible for you to be in contact with us without highlighting and exacerbating existing tensions but remember; we knew this and still sought you out and made contact.  Tensions you bring to the surface are tensions which need to be resolved regardless, one way or another.”

  “I understand,” Kathryn said, and she thought she did.  He was right.  Whatever disagreements might exist among the people of Haven, their general mission and ambitions were nearly universally shared.

  They walked through a forested area which gave way to an open meadow beside a modest lake.   The moonlight reflected across the surface of the water towards them in a wedge of rippling white light.  Kathryn bit her lip and silently damned Felix for putting the idea of a romantic walk into her head.  This locale certainly fit the description and realizing it now made her uncomfortable in a way she couldn’t shake.

  “Have you asked the Romans about it?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” she answered.  “As I mentioned it was their idea in the first place.”  “They were quite eager to participate when I told them that your President had agreed.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Jaren said.

  “And you know, I can see where Irvina is coming from, but Mortensen didn’t seem nearly as objectionable as she made him out to be.”

  “Well, if you ever question or challenge him, you’ll see what she means,” Jaren remarked.

  “Right.”   Kathryn stored that information away for later.  “Anyways, the Roman ambassadors insisted on joining the mission themselves along with two of their embassy staff.  They said that their home world would immediately dispatch temporary replacement ambassadors to Kobol.”

  “Three teams of four working together.  There certainly is a pleasing symmetry to it isn’t there?  Teams of three worlds going to investigate a fourth.”

  “Yes,” Kathryn acknowledged.  “I think it will work out well.  I like our chances.”

  “What about your own people?  Have they agreed to exchange embassies?”

  “Oh yes, as expected quite eagerly.  Your people will send their mission to Haven on a transport ship which will then return Haven’s mission back here.  Everything is happening so quickly.  It’s gratifying, but also a little scary.”

  Jaren nodded his agreement.  She found herself stealing glances at him, trying to appear as though she were casually looking at other things about them or beyond him.  When she realized what she was doing she privately chastised herself and insisted that she stop.  Immediately afterwards she went to do it again, but this time caught him doing the same thing, and they both understood the glances which the other had failed to adequately mask.  They both looked away from each other in embarrassment.  

  Jaren turned back to her to apologize.  “Look Commander, I-”

  That was all he could get out before she grabbed him with her left arm around his waist and her right hand on the side of his face and kissed him.  They paused with their lips on each other, but it felt so right they couldn’t resist opening their mouths and kissing more deeply ever so briefly before they both pulled away despite their desire to continue.

  “Kat,” she croaked as she looked away at the lake and fought back a tear.  “Call me Kat,” she said.  “At least when we’re alone… you can call me Kat.”  She was trembling.  She terrified that she’d just made a terrible mistake, that she had no idea what she was doing.

  “Commander-”

  “Kat.”

  “Okay, okay,” he smiled.  “Kat.”

  “I know what you’re going to say Jaren and I agree,” she said.  “That was stupid.”

  He touched her chin and pulled her gaze back towards him.  “That is not what I was going to say,” he smiled.  “I was going to say, I was wondering how long we’d be able to resist before one of did that.”

  “Oh, so…” Kathryn felt unusually flustered.

  “I feel like we became very close on the trip here,” Jaren said.

  “I feel the same way…”

  “Clearly,” he said with a grin.

  “I don’t know if it’s… appropriate though.”

  “Appropriate?” he asked.

  “We’re… colleagues.  We be trying to keep things… you know, professional?”

  Jaren chuckled.  “I believe we have been trying.”

  Kathryn looked down and smiled.  “Jaren.”   She was trying to let her rational self see as much daylight as possible.  “I don’t see anything wrong with… this, tonight.” she said, gesturing back and forth between them.  “But if you come on this mission with us…” she slowly shook her head.  “We become colleagues again.  It becomes inappropriate again, doesn’t it?”

  “I would never want to do anything that made you feel uncomfortable or in any way compromised, Kat.  I understand your concerns about intermingling the personal with the professional, but for the record, for what it’s worth, I am bound by no rules which forbid… this.”

  “Now that I think about it,” she reflected with pleasant surprise, “neither am I.   But it still feels implied, you know?   A rule not existing to forbid this might just imply a lack of imagination.”

  “Fair enough,” he agreed with a note of disappointment.  He held his hand out for her to shake.  “So just colleagues then?  As long as we’re working together like this anyways?”

  She shook his hand, but held it.  Keeping hold of his hand she slowly twirled herself around, putting her back to him and holding his hand over her chest.   “On the other hand… we can be discrete, right?”

  “Discrete.   Right…”